UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST

UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST; Roving Armenians Reportedly Kill 7 Azerbaijanis in the Soviet South

AP

Published: March 26, 1990

MOSCOW, March 25—
Armenians shot residents and set fire to houses in three villages in western Azerbaijan over the weekend, burning a family of five to death and killing two others, officials reported today.

At least two bombings were also reported in the southern Transcaucasus region, where Armenia is disputing control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh is a predominantly Armenian enclave surrounded by Azerbaijan.

Two Armenians died while trying to fire a shell at Azerbaijanis, reports said. It was the most serious outburst of ethnic violence in the region since the Jan. 13 anti-Armenian riots and nationalist protests in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, and the takeover of the city by Soviet troops a week later.

According to official figures, at least 197 people were killed in the January violence, 125 of them after the arrival of Soviet soldiers in Baku. The troops were sent in after the Armenians, who are mostly Christian, came under attack from the Muslim Azerbaijanis in what was described as a pogrom.

'Bitter and Tragic'

The official Tass press agency and the national television called the reports from the Caucasus ''bitter and tragic'' and said the attacks threatened ''some softening of the situation recently achieved in the region.''

Tass said firearms were used by both sides in the area on Friday and Saturday, and it reported incidents of shooting at vehicles and houses. Tass reported some ''incidents of hostage-taking,'' without elaborating.

Some reports singled out Armenian radicals, saying their acts undermined the Armenian people. A spokesman at Communist Party headquarters in Baku confirmed reports of the attacks on Saturday, saying they took place in western Azerbaijan's Kazakhsky district, bordering Armenia.

Seven people, including two children ages five and six, were killed, five in the fire bombing and two in another attack, said the party official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Azerbaijan's official press agency said Armenians with automatic weapons attacked three villages, Baganis Airum, Pirili and Chaily, wounding many residents. The agency put the death toll at nine, but there was no way to reconcile the difference in the casualty figures.

Supply Lines Disrupted

It said units of Interior Ministry troops and 150 police officers were sent to the area. Two Armenians who tried to use an anti-aircraft gun to shell Azerbaijani villages died on Thursday when a shell exploded, Tass said.

The same day, 15 Armenian nationalists from a pro-independence group raided the offices of Soviet Government and party officials in Armenia, threatening the officials with pistols and machine guns, Tass said. No casualties were reported. On Saturday, a time bomb destroyed a gas station in Nagorno-Karabakh, Tass reported.

Later, a locomotive and two wagons were blown off their rails near the Armenian city of Megri when a bomb exploded under a passenger train traveling from Armenia to Baku. A reserve locomotive sent to the site came under fire and travel on that part of the railroad was blocked, Tass said.

Both sides have been attacking transport lines, and the Azerbaijanis have periodically imposed a blockade on Armenia by stopping trains carrying food and supplies to the republic.